Gu Cheng: A Fairy Tale Poet

Gu Cheng born in an intellectual family was under good cultural influence in his childhood and had inherent refined emotions. He created the poem Poplar at the age of eight as a precocious poet. In his youth, sufferings in the Cultural Revolution cast inerasable shadows on his soul, and exerted huge influence on his later poetry creation. At the age of 12, Gu Cheng left the city and was sent to Shandong's countryside with his father. Blue skies, quiet clouds, flying girds, blooming flowers... Gu Cheng experienced joy and happiness in nature. In 1977, Gu Cheng began to write a lot of poems and became one of the representative poets in the "obscure poetry" movement. He went abroad to give lectures in 1987, arrived in New Zealand then, and lived in seclusion on Waiheke Island away from people later to build life like a fairy tale in his imagination. In 1993, Gu Cheng committed suicide after killing his wife, ending his life in a violent way. The real reason why he killed himself is still a mystery. "You believed in the fairy tale written by you, and you became an orchid in the fairy tale." Shu Ting dedicated this poem titled Fairy Tale Poet to Gu Cheng, hence Gu Cheng's nickname "Fairy Tale Poet."

Gu Cheng's poems can be classified into two categories according to themes and contents. Poems of the first category give attention to the world, nature and self from children's perspective, and in these poems the world is as pure and peaceful as in fairy tales, represented by Night of the Countryside, Recollection, Nameless Flowers, Life Fantasia, I am a Willful Child, etc. In works of the second category, Gu Cheng paid attention to the society and thought about life. Some poems have certain political meanings, express Gu Cheng's inquiries about history and social reality as well as his reflection on interpersonal relationships, and reveal philosophical meanings. The poem shows the poet's discontent with the current life, bewilderment, hesitation and longing for brightness. Representative works include A Generation, Far and Near, Farewell to the Graveyard, On an Unfamiliar Street, End, Historical Civil War, etc.

Even with these dark eyes, a gift of the dark night I go to seek the shining light.

The poem A Generation only contains 18 Chinese characters, but every Chinese character goes straight to people's hearts. It greatly shocked the poetry circles then. The "dark night" refers to the suffocating society. In the "dark night," people felt downhearted, oppressed and painful. The "dark night" blinded people's eyes, so people could not see the future and life was void, solitary and lonely; however, the poet did not yield to all these brought to him by the "dark night" and wanted to seek the shining light with these "dark eyes." "Dark eyes" and "shining light" constitute a contradiction, but this irreconcilable contradiction and absurdity highlight the resolute resistance and persistent pursuit of ideals. The poem expresses the aspiration of "a generation" and portrays the spirit of this generation: though deeply wounded, bewildered and perplexed, they still resisted desperately against the predetermined fate like heroes. This poem shows a generation's incessantly rushing stream of life, and keeps inspiring later people to pursue human freedom indomitably.

Gu Cheng was also a poet retaining childlike innocence. He refused to grow up, and refused to enter adults' world. Bewildered by fairy tales, he always tried to build his own "fairy tale kingdom" in which there is no darkness or conflict and only simplicity and beauty. This characteristic is most obviously manifested in I am a Willful Child!

I am a willful child

I wish to erase all misfortunes

I wish to paint windows All over the earth

So that all eyes that are used to the night

Would get used to the light

I am wishing

And wondering

But I don't know why

I haven't got the crayons

Nor a moment that is colored

I only have me

My fingers and my pains

So I have to tear up the paper piece by piece

My beloved white paper

Let them go after the butterflies

Let them disappear from the present

The poem epitomizes Gu Cheng's aesthetic ideals and persistent pursuit of ideals. He longed for a pure and harmonious world, "love without pain" and "eyes that never shed tears," but because ideals and reality could never be united, this "willful child" never got the crayons and could not draw this beautiful world. At last, he had to tear up "beloved white paper" piece by piece and let them "disappear from the present." However, "I" was still a "spoiled child" of the "imagined mother" and still persistently pursuing the beautiful world in imagination.